Global Financial Watchdog Slams Pak For Terror Financing

Madrid:A leading intergovernmental financial watchdog has slammed Pakistan for continued complicity in financing terrorist entities, adding that certain UN-designated terror groups in the country receive money due to lack of control by the authorities.

At its meeting in Spain’s Valencia, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a Paris-based organisation which sets standards for banks globally, closely scrutinised Pakistan’s record on terror financing.

The report on Pakistan’s complicity in terror financing was discussed at the agency’s Plenary, the group’s highest decision- making body, which took place from June 18-23.

As per the report, certain entities designated as terror groups under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 continue to receive and disperse funds without controls being applied by Pakistani authorities. As a consequence, the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) of FATF has requested its regional arm Asia Pacific Group (APG) to provide the revised follow-up report on Pakistan. The ICRG asked APG to provide the report following the discussion over it at the APG annual meeting in July 2017.

In February, the ICRG had requested the APG to provide its analysis report on Pakistan.

“Given the concerns raised in this report that highlighted that there continue to be certain UNSCR 1267 designated entities that receive and disperse funds without controls being applied by the competent authorities, the ICRG recommends further reporting to the ICRG be provided either by the APG or, failing that, directly from Pakistan,” the report on Pakistan said.

If the APG plenary decides not to provide the report, the ICRG granted permission to the ICRG co-chairs to request, in August, for Pakistan to comprehensively report directly to the

ICRG in September on updates regarding the country’s implementation of the UNSCR 1267 with respect to designated entities of concern, the report said.

In February 2015, when Pakistan was removed from ICRG monitoring, the FATF encouraged Islamabad to continue working with it and APG to effectively implement its AML (Anti-Money Laundering) and CFT (Combating Financing of Terrorism) systems.

The FATF was established in 1989 to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and combat other related threats to the international financial system. It has developed a series of recommendations that are recognised as the international standard for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.